Companies Facing The Most Litigation Over Patents In 2015

In a recent article published on Forbes, Data Journalist Niall McCarthy looks into patent disputes in the United States, concluding that the country is set to see a record number of patent disputes this year.

According to a report issued by Unified Patents, projections suggest 2015 will witness more than 7,000 patent disputes, with litigation cases reaching at least 6,100, and PTAB cases, more than 1,900. This figure compares to 5,002 litigation cases registered last year, and 1,677 PTAB cases, and would be the highest ever in the country.

From a sectorial standpoint, tech companies faced the most litigation related to intellectual property infringements. As it can be seen in the chart below, Apple Inc. AAPL leads the bunch with 35 patent litigation cases started against it in the first half of the year.

Samsung Electronics SSNLF and Hewlett-Packard Company HPQ trail the tech behemoth , but are not far behind. The companies were sued 33 and 32 times, respectively, between January and June.

Outside of the tech segment, Actavis was the most sued, with 25 cases over patents.